


Inadvertent Findings

by malevolent_muse



Category: Law & Order: SVU
Genre: Barisi - Freeform, Fluff, Kissing, Lawyer Boyfriends, M/M, One Shot, Oral Sex, Porn with Feelings, Smut
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-01-11
Updated: 2020-01-11
Packaged: 2021-02-21 23:35:51
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,553
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22205668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevolent_muse/pseuds/malevolent_muse
Summary: Spring 2016, Sonny Carisi is finally finished with law school and now faces the daunting task of taking the bar exam. As he prepares the night before the big test, the discovery of a lost soul brings him closer with his mentor than he ever expected to be.
Relationships: Rafael Barba/Dominick "Sonny" Carisi Jr.
Comments: 26
Kudos: 82





	Inadvertent Findings

**Author's Note:**

  * For [RoadrunnerGER](https://archiveofourown.org/users/RoadrunnerGER/gifts).



“I can’t thank you enough, counselor,” the detective practically gushed as he and his colleague meandered down the hallway of the assistant district attorney’s apartment building.

“Carisi,” Barba noted with an air of modesty that typically didn’t grace his lips, “don’t mention it. Honestly, it’s the least I could do.”

“I really do appreciate it,” Carisi continued as the pair made their way into the awaiting elevator carriage and descended to the lobby. “I mean, letting me shadow you on a couple of cases was generous. But allowing me to come over and walking me through the exam the day before the bar means a lot. I know how valuable and limited your free time tends to be.”

With a shake of his head, the older man dismissed Carisi’s sentiments.

“Don’t grovel, detective,” Barba chided softly. “It’s unbecoming. Besides, the best way to thank me is to go home, get a good night's rest, and pass the bar tomorrow.”

The subtle ding and rumble of doors announced their arrival on the first floor. Stepping out, Barba led the way to the door.

“I don’t know if I’ll be able to sleep,” the detective confessed. “I’m so nervous.”

“You’ll be fine.”

Truth was that Barba knew all too well the feeling Carisi was encountering. The constant churning of the mind and stomach coupled with occasional nausea that never did go away, even after the exam was over, were symptoms he had had back when he had taken the bar. It was a common enough experience amongst law students and he hadn’t expected Carisi would be any different.

Placing the flat of his hand against the smooth glass paneling of the outside entryway, the attorney pushed open the door and ushered his detective out into the cool spring night air.

 _Did I really just think of him as my detective?_ Barba asked himself, a bit perplexed at the notion. Granted, he had been spending a lot of time with Carisi lately but it had always been totally above board, 100% professional. _Maybe a little friendly,_ he thought, _but nothing that would be indicative of ownership. I don’t own Sonny. He doesn’t belong to me. Not that I wouldn’t want to but the man is Olivia’s subordinate and, not to mention, straight. And I’m … I’m—_

“...bye.”

“What?!” Barba nearly gasped as he realized that he had been completely lost in thought and that Carisi had been speaking to him the whole time as they had exited the building.

“I said,” Carisi replied, “you didn’t need to walk me all the way to the subway station. You could’ve stopped at the door and just said goodbye.”

“No,” the attorney returned with a shake of his head even though he really didn’t know why he had accompanied the younger man down the street. “I wanted to. Besides, it’s good to get out and stretch my legs, even if it’s just for a little bit.”

“Okay,” Carisi said with a shrug.

The pair made their way a little further when suddenly the detective stopped in his tracks and craned his neck to peer down a dark dirty alley.

“What is it?” Barba asked.

“Dunno,” Carisi replied as he turned on his heels and made his way down the narrow passageway.

“Carisi!” he called, stopping at the entrance of the alley, unwilling to follow his colleague into the darkness. “What is it?”

As the detective ducked behind a dumpster, Barba lost sight of him. At that moment, his heart quickened and his mouth went dry.

“Carisi,” he called again.

The dark-blond head of the young detective popped back up and, as he made his way back down the waste strewn cobblestones, Barba realized the man was cradling something in his arms.

“I thought I heard something,” Carisi explained as he rejoined the counselor on the sidewalk.

Sure enough, there, in the embrace of the detective, was a small creature.

“It’s a dog,” Barba observed, entirely nonplussed. 

“It’s not just a dog,” the detective shot back. “It’s a corgi! My cousin Luisa had one of these when we were kids. I was so jealous. My parents wouldn’t let us have a dog.”

“Is there a point to this story, detective? Or is there a reason you are taking a stroll down memory lane before we call animal control?”

Carisi stepped back from the counselor as if he had been burned.

“Animal control? You’re kidding me, right? This poor little guy has been lost outside by himself for goodness knows how long and you want to send him off to the pound?! You don’t want to go to the pound, do you buddy?”

Reaching forward, Barba fumbled with the collar around the dog’s neck.

“Chloe is a strange name for your new little buddy,” he said as he examined the tag and realizing the dog was female. “But at least there’s a number for us to call. Give me the dog and I’ll call the owner. You need to get going home.”

Carisi, though, was apparently smitten with the animal and didn’t give any indication that he would be handing Chloe over any time soon.

“Go ahead and call,” Carisi replied. “I can stick around for a few moments longer.”

Not bothering to argue, Barba sighed as he pulled out his phone and dialed the number engraved on the back of the tag and waited for the dog’s owner to answer. An answer never came.

“Voicemail,” he pronounced as he ended the call.

“Call again,” Carisi demanded. “And this time, leave a message.”

The second outcome was the same as the first, though this time Barba left a quick voice message to quell the detective’s possible reproach.

“Why aren’t they answering?” Carisi hypothesized. “If my dog was lost, I would answer every call, no matter the number. Can you send a text? Maybe they are low on minutes.”

With a shake of his head, Barba did as the detective asked but did not hold back on his own inferences.

“It’s just a dog.”

“It’s not just a dog. It’s someone’s baby. Aren’t you, Chloe?” Carisi conveyed before placing a tender peck on the top of the corgi’s head. 

The dog didn’t help matters by turning up its head and licking the underside of Carisi’s chin. An unpleasant emotion, somewhat akin to jealousy, stirred in Barba’s heart and he wanted nothing more than to be rid of the dog as quickly as possible.

“I’m going to call animal control.”

“No!” Carisi protested, reaching out and grabbing Barba’s arm to prevent him from dialing. “Can’t you just wait? We could go back to your apartment and see if maybe someone posted about Chloe on social media.”

“Absolutely not, Carisi,” the counselor scolded. “You have to take the bar tomorrow. The last thing you need to worry about is some stray dog.”

“Barba,” the detective replied, his big blue eyes locking on to Rafael’s brown ones, “please?”

“Why do you care so much?”

“My job is to serve and protect…especially the ones who can’t protect themselves.”

Then, lifting one of Chloe’s tiny paws and waving it in Barba’s direction, Carisi said again, “Please?”

Rolling his eyes, Barba caved.

“Fine. But if it pees in my apartment, you’ll be the one that cleans it up.”

“Deal!” came Carisi’s cheery reply as he practically bounced on his toes in excitement.

Barba wondered why his colleague was so adamant about finding the dog’s owner as he led the way back to his apartment. Carisi had never given any indication that he was such a big dog lover before now. Perhaps Chloe was just a welcome distraction from the pressures of the upcoming bar exam.

As they re-entered his apartment, Barba asked, “So how long are you going to make me wait until I call animal control?”

“Um…” muttered the detective as he wandered into the attorney’s kitchen. “Not sure. Maybe an hour, I wanted to check social media. Do you mind if I get a bowl and some water for Chloe?”

“I’m not going to stop you,” Barba replied as he settled down on the couch and picked up the errant files he had brought home with him.

He had meant to do a bit of work this evening but, at this point, he doubted he’d get anything done. Still, it didn’t hurt to go through the motions.

“Actually,” Carisi added as he filled a bowl at the sink before setting it down on the floor for the dog, “do you have Facebook and Twitter? I shut down all my social media accounts when I started studying for the bar.”

“Really?” Barba was a little amazed. Carisi was a millennial and the idea of him not being on social media was entirely unexpected.

“Yeah,” replied the detective as he came to sit down next to the attorney, “there’s this concept called ‘deep work’ and one of the major points is to try and free yourself from distractions. So I deleted the apps off my phone, at least while I’ve been studying. I haven’t used them in months.”

“Good for you,” Barba praised his detective.

The genuine smile he got in return was enough to light up the room.

“So,” Carisi said, “you mind if I use your accounts to get Chloe home?”

“Just a moment,” the counselor pronounced, putting his files down as he got up from the couch and wandered into his bedroom to find his iPad. “Here we are,” he replied as he set the device in Carisi’s lap before returning to his seat next to the detective.

“Thanks,” Carisi muttered, as he turned on the tablet and quickly opened the applications for which he was looking. “You know, you really should have a passcode on this thing.”

“Why? I’m the only one who uses it. And I don’t take it places so it’s not going to get lost anytime soon.”

“Someone could break in and steal it. You never know.”

“You cops sure can be pessimists. You know that, right?”

“I call it being realistic.”

“ _Hmrpf_.”

As Carisi tapped the touch screen and brought up lost pet pages on Facebook, the pair engaged in idle chatter. Chloe, having found a comfy spot on the carpet, had settled down and fallen asleep. Clearly, the dog was relieved to be out of the chilly night’s air and somewhere safe.

“There,” Carisi announces as he closed out of Twitter, “all done. Now we just wait.”

Not sure what to do, Barba asked, “Do you want to go over your flashcards? Or maybe I can ask you some potential exam questions.”

“Ugh,” Carisi moaned, pinching the bridge of his nose. “If I think about the exam anymore, I think my head is going to explode.”

Acting instinctively, Barba reached out a hand and rubbed the detective’s shoulder, “You’ll be fine. In 24 hours, it will all be over.”

“Not if I don’t pass it, it won’t.”

“Hey, now,” Barba chided, “what did I say about being pessimistic?”

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Carisi lamented. “I’m just a cop. What made me think I could do this?”

Seeing that his detective’s thoughts had taken a rather sudden and dismal dive, Barba attempted to pull him back up to the surface.

“Listen to me, Sonny,” he said, using the detective’s nickname. “If you fail the exam, you can take it again. It’s not the end of the world. Most people don’t pass on the first try. But here’s the thing, I don’t think you will fail. You have fully committed and you are prepared. You got this.”

Carisi shook his head in disagreement and Barba couldn’t help but notice moisture beginning to gather in the corners of the detective’s eyes. If that wasn’t enough to indicate how Sonny was feeling, the tremble in his voice betrayed his emotions.

“I’m just some upstart kid from Staten Island. Just because I think I can do something doesn’t mean I can.”

Sliding his hand further up, Barba buried his fingers in the soft hairs at the base of Carisi’s neck and pulled the detective down so the man’s head rested against the attorney’s chest. Neither of them had mentioned it that entire night but the SVU caseload had been particularly gut-wrenching of late. The fact that Carisi was having a difficult time dealing with the emotional stress of the job plus the intellectual stress of studying for the bar was not unexpected. The only surprising part was that Barba hadn’t seen it coming sooner. Little wonder why Sonny was desperate for a distraction. Finding Chloe’s owner could be an easy win. Rafael was now regretting putting up such a fuss over it.

“It’s going to be okay,” Barba soothed before placing the tiniest of kisses on the crown of the detective’s head.

“You really think so?” Carisi asked, raising his head to look the counselor in the face.

A few tears had fallen from the bottom lashes of his eyes and Barba went to brush them off with his fingertips.

At least, that was what he meant to do.

What he actually did was brush the tears off with his lips.

Realizing what he was doing a moment too late, the counselor pulled back, Barba studied Sonny’s face as he fumbled for an apology.

Carisi was confused, that was clear. Expecting the other man to recoil, or worse, lash out, Barba braced himself. Instead, the detective sat almost frozen, his blue eyes now clear and bright under the artificial light of the living room’s lamps.

“Sonny, I—“ 

The words for the situation escaped him but that was beside the point. Carisi spared him the effort to come up with a plausible excuse by instead leaning forward and pressing a kiss on the counselor’s lips.

And what a kiss it was.

It was timid at first as if asking permission. When Barba did not show any signs of disapproval, the kiss intensified, becoming pressing and urgent. Giving as good as he got, the attorney drank in the physical attention being showered on him by the younger man. As Sonny’s tongue darted out to graze the supple plane of his lower lip, only then did Rafael became uncertain of his actions. 

Tilting his chin down, Barba kept his forehead rested against Carisi’s. 

With his eyes closed, as he did not want to look and see the emotion that was surely in Sonny’s eyes, Barba asked, “We really doing this? I thought you were straight.”

“I like to think of myself as being heteroflexible,” Sonny replied, his breath uneven from what the counselor took as excitement. ”But we can stop if you want.”

“I didn’t say that.”

“Then shut up and kiss me.”

For once, the counselor didn’t have a snarky remark. But he did bite down rather hard on the detective’s bottom lip as they resumed kissing.

Letting himself get lost in the sensations of intertwining lips and tongue, and the occasional clink of teeth on teeth, Barba really didn’t know how long they spent making out on his couch. It had been a while since the counselor had seen any action (being married to the job will do that to a guy) and, consequently, he was beginning to feel specific parts of his anatomy stir to life. Within minutes, he found himself gently pushing Carisi down on the couch and getting on top. 

Some rational part of his brain told him to stop. Carisi was not only younger than him but their relationship was something along the lines of mentor/pupil. There was a power imbalance and Barba was a fool if he tried to convince himself there wasn’t one.

Crouching over the recumbent detective, the least he could do was check in with the man.

“You, okay?” Barba asked. “I don’t want to take this further than you are comfortable going.”

Carisi responded by grabbing Rafael’s hips and pulling them down as he frotted his own erection against the older man’s groin.

“Oh, fuck,” Barba moaned.

He didn’t care that they were humping each other on the couch like a couple of teenage boys exploring their sexuality for the first time because, damn it, it felt good.

His mind now completely clouded by lust, Barba sat back on his haunches as he grappled with Carisi’s belt and the fastening of his pants. He made quick work of them and within seconds he had one of his hands down the detective’s boxers and wrapped around that stiff cock.

“Barba, wait!” Carisi exclaimed, his breath hitching.

“Sonny,” the counselor recommended, “I’m going to have your dick in my mouth in two seconds. You can call me Rafael.”

The detective nodded and laid his head back against the armrest of the couch as he sighed, “Yes, Rafael.”

“Good.”

And without any further ado, Barba pushed down the last article of clothing in his way and enveloped Carisi’s hot and hard cock in his mouth.

Running his tongue along the underside of the shaft, Rafael got as much of the length in his mouth as he could before working his way back up and swirling the tip of his tongue around the velvety smooth skin of Caris’s cockhead. 

“Fuck,” Carisi moaned, running his hands through Barba’s hair.

By the pleasurable sounds his companion was making, Rafael was surprised Sonny was showing such restraint and not gripping his head to force him down further. That is what most men in this situation would do. Then again, most men weren’t Dominick Carisi.

Choking himself ever so slightly on Carisi’s length, Barba ensured the dick was slick with saliva before wrapping his left hand around the shaft and working it up and down and he sucked the tip. With his other hand, he fondled Carisi’s balls, tugging at them ever so gently.

“Oh fuck, oh fuck, oh fuck,” Sonny panted. He was getting close.

And right at that most inopportune moment, Barba’s cell phone chimed. 

Chloe barked.

Carisi shifted ever so slightly as if he wanted to stop and look at the phone.

But Barba was having none of it.

He had already done all the work and he’d be damned if he’d let a single alert on his mobile sway him from completing his task. Putting a hand on Carisi’s chest, Rafael held him in place as he finished what he had started.

Barba was experienced and knew the male body well enough to know when to pull back. Right before Sonny reached his climax, the counselor released the cock from his mouth with a pop and finished milking that orgasm from Carisi. Sonny’s back arched and thighs quaked and, breathlessly, he came. Catching the detective’s release in a handy pocket-handkerchief, Barba took in the breathtaking view of a handsome man completely spent and satisfied.

“That was…” Carisi muttered, his chest still heaving.

“The best you ever had?” Barba teased, as he sat up and reached for his phone.

“I’ve never gone that far before,” Carisi admitted. “At least not with another man.”

“ _Hmm_?” the counselor wordlessly responded.

“Do you want me to…?”

“What? Sonny, no. You don’t have to do that,” Barba said, as he untangled himself and pulled the detective back up to a sitting position. 

“Why not?”

“For starters,” the attorney replied as he texted Chloe’s owner back, “we don’t have the time. And when it comes to that sort of thing, I tend to enjoy giving more than receiving. Besides, I meant it when I said you need to try to sleep tonight. You stay here and neither of us is going to get any sleep.”

“You’re kicking me out?” Carisi asked as he pulled his pants back up and fastened his belt.

“I’m afraid so,” Barba explained as he surveyed the next few messages that came across on his phone. “Turns out Chloe’s owner is on her honeymoon and out of the country, which explains why she didn’t answer right away. Her neighbor’s daughter was supposed to be watching the dog. I’m getting the neighbor’s number now and then I’m going to make sure that both you and Chloe get home.”

“Oh,” Carisi, muttered. “So you don’t want to talk about … about what just happened?”

“Sonny,” Barba softly chided before leaning in and giving him a gentle kiss. “I really want you to pass that exam tomorrow, so you have to go. We can talk as soon as you’re done. I promise.”

“So… we’re good?”

“Yes, we’re good.”

“And you’re sure you don’t want me to… return the favor?”

The attorney laughed. For someone who had just gotten his cock sucked, Sonny was acting rather reserved.

“I’m a big boy, Sonny. I can take care of myself.”

Barba’s phone pinged again and he read the message aloud, “My neighbor only lives a few blocks away but they’ve been out looking for Chloe all night. They will meet you by the front door of your building in a few minutes.”

Standing up and adjusting his clothing so it didn’t look quite as rumpled, Barba then sauntered over to Chloe and picked her up off the rug. With a hand extended to the detective, the counselor wordlessly beckoned the man to join him.

Pushing himself off the couch and stepping closer, Sonny took the proffered hand and said, “Thank you, Rafael.”

“Don’t mention it.”

  
  


**Author's Note:**

> Happy Birthday RoadRunnerGER! - Thanks for always reading my work and not complaining (too much) when I take forever to get around to proofreading. 
> 
> To the rest of my readers: Thank you for reading. Feel free to leave me a comment. I really do appreciate them :)

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Closing Arguments](https://archiveofourown.org/works/28737807) by [malevolent_muse](https://archiveofourown.org/users/malevolent_muse/pseuds/malevolent_muse)




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